Sunday, August 04, 2013

Beware of scams at job search sites

Recently I registered at a job search site, looking for freelance work.

I was surprised to receive an email from Hyundai Motor India Limited, saying I had been shortlisted for a senior position in the company and asking me to confirm my attendance at an interview to be conducted at the company headquarters in Delhi. As I read the attached PDF of the call to attend, all sorts of alarm bells went off in my head.

First of all, the email header (the 'from' field) indicated that the email had come from a company in Brazil. Now, why would Hyundai India send me an email from Brazil?

Now why, I asked myself, was Hyundai not using a hyundai.in or hyundai.co.in domain name for email? A company as large as Hyundai can easily afford the domain names and the staff to monitor mails to them.

The clincher was a paragraph asking me to pay money in advance as a cash security deposit since, it claimed, a large number of people had taken their air tickets and absconded. Whenever I'm asked to pay to a company that's supposed to pay ME, I get suspicious.

So I googled "hyundai scam" without the quotes and found this:hyundai scam notice
In case you can't see the cautionary text, I've pasted it below:NoticeIt has come to our notice that some fraudulent agencies/imposters/ external agencies asking gullible candidates through mails/correspondence to deposit money in exchange for recruitment service/employment in Hyundai Motor India.

Please be warned that these are fake persons/ agencies, engaged in fraudulent activities. Hyundai Motor India does not deal nor adopt these practices nor collect any money for employment.

Person receiving such mails/correspondence are requested to lodge complaint with the local police authorities and also bring it to the notice of Hyundai Motor India

10 comments:

Good way to find the deceptive email.I also have encountered such problems and what I do is immediately search in internet for the company through which I received the email..further I do a whois using WhoisXY.com and try to contact the owner if their details are listed out.Once I got an email like the one that you have specified.I took this to the notice of Gmail customer support also.